This is NOT a bashing thread its for those with concerns to voice them about what we have seen so far, or people who have some input to help relieve those concerns. If you don't like the views here and just want to criticize please just move on...

From what we have seen so far from trailers and production vlogs it seems they are really trying to tell us these films are in the same spirit as the LOTR films but from what is actually shown they seem to have very little in common other than they are supposedly set in middle earth. I as well as others have concerns only from what we have seen so far, as well as rumors of things that just sound off compared to the caliber that LOTR established a decade ago.

Compared to Peter Jackson's own LOTR...

1. middle earth just seems brighter and more colorful and less "real" (very noticeably so IMO) 2..some of the dwarves, new creatures, and bad guys just look very cartoonish (again opinion) compared to the more realistic approach they took last time 3. the visual effects just don't seem to mesh with the scenes in some of what we seen in the trailer (Wargs looking like they were painted on top of the scene) 4. and so far the overall tone from riddles in the dark the overall showing of the dwarves just seems too comical, is this a comedy or an action adventure fantasy film?

Yes I know the Hobbit is a lighter tone book but PJ is the one who wanted the Hobbit to fit his model of the middle earth he created over a decade ago. As it seems at this point the films will not flow from one series to the other very well or the flow will be stretched thin, "like butter scraped over too much bread" It seems the tone is more in line with the source material but the dialogue and slapstick demeanor is not in line with what Tolkien wrote IMO. (Falling in a river doesn't need to be over the top laughing matter to be entertaining)

it seems to me while technology may have improved, but the quality of we have seen thus far IMO is not even as good as it was 10 years ago, Maybe PJ will pull it out at the 11th hour and the films will look great and similar to the middle earth we got with LOTR. But at this point its almost like we are entering some Alice in Wonderland/ middle earth hybrid. Which is not a good thing, I think 3-D and this new camera tech was the wrong way to go with the Hobbit, and they probably invested too much money in it. Instead of investing in other key aspects of these films. There are many defenders of PJ's choices, who hate hearing about the way things look to other people who do not like what they are seeing. Maybe they think we are being a buzzkill, but I see it more as genuine concern about seeing what we consider subpar compared to what we seen with LOTR. I know there are people already believing that these films will be bordering on the same greatness that LOTR had, they may or may not but it is yet to be seen. But I am genuinely concerned that this new version of middle earth is more about technological advances and seeing what "improvements" WETA has made (such as having Gollum so brightly lit in Riddles in the dark)